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by Prip This match looked like it would be rather interesting, with Tina Pisnik having something to prove to herself and Dragana Zaric trying to make her mark on the tour. The Yugoslavian certainly has the right game, and the beginnings of the shots to make it work, but at the moment plays very streaky tennis, frustrating to both player and spectator alike. Of course, this may well disappear as she gains more experience in bigger tournaments, but at the moment, it is still impossible to tell. Dragana won the toss, and opted to receive. Even during the warmup, it looked apparent that both her overhead and serve definitely need working on. Tina herself has a pretty strong serve when she's having a good day, which she was. She managed to get 3 service return errors from Zaric, who was going for too much on the return, and hit one service winner to open the match. Dragana struggled on her service games, as she would throughout the match, and actually double-faulted twice in her first service game to go down 0-2. She managed to get her act together, and played a good solid attacking game to get the break back. A double-fault from Pisnik didn't hurt, either. It looked apparent that things were going to be difficult for Dragana. With her service returns being much stronger than her serve, her plan was to consistently break serve and then hold serve to take the set, sort of the opposite of most players' games. Unfortunately for her, Tina had come well prepared, and her first serve percentage was definitely working for her today. Nevertheless, Dragana continued to play her attacking game. She is neither a baseliner nor a net player, but a combination of both. It is good to see that she has a good sense of when to come in to net and doesn't hesitate to do so. She sets up points well, and has the potential to open opportunities for herself. Unfortunately, the youngster tends to get a little overexcited when it comes to "the kill", and often misses what would and certainly should have been the winner. She got the break back on Tina's serve, and come out of the changeover with a bounce in her step, while on the other side of the court, Tina looked all business. Dragana was determined to hold serve this time, and made up for her mediocre serve by really belting the ball, pressuring Tina's sliced backhand. She had all the opportunity in the world, but kept missing the final shot. Tina got the break again, and this time had no trouble holding serve to go ahead 4-2. The rest of the match was consistently the same story, and Tina's serves saved the day for her. She took the match 6-4 6-3, capping it off with a nice passing shot. Dragana now only had the doubles qualifying with Maja Palaversic to look forward to, which she would play not long after and lose to Evie Dominikovic and Aubrie Rippner. The Yugoslavian heads out to Melbourne on the 9th, and will definitely look to do better there. |